Reducing Carbon Emissions in Existing Buildings

Overview 


The City of Santa Monica is working towards reducing City-wide emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Energy and fossil fuel use in existing buildings accounts for 33% of City-wide greenhouse gas emissions. To meet climate action goals, the City needs to focus on reducing carbon emissions in existing buildings by improving energy efficiency and decreasing fossil fuel use. 

In 2019, Santa Monica City Council adopted the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP), which outlines goals and actions necessary to reduce the City’s carbon emissions. The Climate Action section of the plan focuses on three sectors:  

  • Zero Net Carbon Buildings 
  • Zero Waste 
  • Sustainable Mobility 
The Zero Net Carbon Buildings sector includes council-adopted actions to reduce energy and fossil fuel use in existing buildings: 

  • ZNC5: Adopt a Carbon Reduction Ordinance to require energy benchmarking and carbon performance of existing buildings over 20,000 sq ft, including multifamily buildings. Require a reduction of fossil fuel use of covered buildings by 15% in five years and elimination of fossil fuel use by 2050. 
  • ZNC9: Develop programs, resources and incentives to support gas-to-electric conversion of appliances, hot-water heaters and HVAC systems. Establish electrification retrofit upon sale requirements for low-rise residential, and small multifamily and commercial buildings. 

In 2023, the Office of Sustainability and the Environment (OSE) released the Existing Building Electrification Roadmap, which expanded upon CAAP actions to include goals of adopting Building Performance Standards (BPS – ZNC5) and Existing Building Reach Codes.

These policy options offer the best route to achieving building-sector climate action goals while improving existing buildings. Improving energy performance of existing buildings can bring benefits such as: 

  • Health and Safety: Switching gas-burning appliances out for electric can improve indoor air quality. 
  • Cost/Value: Installing higher-efficiency appliances and making behavioral changes to reduce energy use can increase asset-value of buildings and reduce utility bill costs. 
  • Environmental/Resilience: Improving energy performance in existing buildings reduces outdoor air pollution and harmful GHGs while increasing resiliency.  
The City is actively working to develop and implement the following policies to improve the comfort, health, and sustainability of existing buildings and people who live and work in them: 

  • Building Performance Standards – Clean and Healthy Existing Buildings Ordinance (CHEBO) 
  • Existing Building Reach Codes 

Building Performance Standards 

 

What are Building Performance Standards?

A BPS policy is a set of mandatory requirements for existing buildings designed to decarbonize buildings and the economy by reducing energy and gas use, and cutting peak electric demand. They are different from and complement building codes because they apply at specified dates whether or not a building is pulling building permits and they require progressively better performance over time. So, they drive improvements across a broad swath of large buildings.

How do Building Performance Standards work?

 

Overview of Santa Monica’s Draft Clean and Healthy Existing Buildings Ordinance

The City is in the process of drafting a local Building Performance Standards policy called the “Clean and Healthy Existing Buildings Ordinance” (CHEBO). The draft ordinance will soon be available for public comment on this site under the resources tab. This has the potential to be the most leveraged policy to help the City meet its climate action goals.  

Santa Monica’s BPS would require owners of all existing buildings larger than 20,000 square feet to 1) report their building energy use annually through a process called Benchmarking and 2) meet greenhouse gas and/or energy use targets every 5 years beginning in 2031 for buildings larger than 50,000 square feet and in 2036 for buildings larger than 20,000 square feet. Targets would become increasingly more stringent until buildings achieve a final performance target of net zero emissions by 2050. Property owners would meet targets by either making necessary building upgrades such replacing space or water heaters with electric alternatives or by making changes in operations, maintenance or behavior to reduce energy consumption.  

If property owners are unable to reasonably meet BPS targets, they will have the option to submit a Building Performance Action Plan (BPAP) to the City. A BPAP is a binding agreement between property owners and the City that provide additional flexibility to owners facing challenges in meeting their interim or final performance standards. Additional flexibility may include target and/or timeline adjustments or prescriptive measures. To better understand how building owners will comply with the policy, please see the BPS compliance flowchart below: 

Rulemaking 

Given the complexity of Santa Monica’s BPS policy, the necessary next step for policy implementation after the ordinance is adopted will be to develop Administrative Regulations or “Rules” governing the BPS policy. These rules would clarify certain elements of the ordinance and add additional policy details where necessary. OSE envisions that a successful rulemaking process would engage stakeholders such as owners of covered buildings to co-develop remaining policy details, ensuring equitable policy implementation and maximizing flexibility for building owners.  

Policy Background 

In 2023, Santa Monica joined a growing list of other cities that have either adopted or are committed to adopting Building Performance Standards by joining the National Building Performance Standards Coalition. Dozens of other state and local governments in California and around the nation are committed to adopting equitable BPS policies by Earth Day 2026. Through the Coalition, Santa Monica gained access to technical assistance offered by the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories.  

The City initiated public outreach to develop BPS by hosting three workshops in Spring of 2023. Following this, staff identified and engaged local building owners, architects, green building experts, advocacy groups and others by organizing six working group meetings in early 2024 focused on developing key aspects of the BPS policy.  

Now, the City is holding three final public engagement opportunities in the form of informational meetings. These meetings present excellent opportunities for local stakeholders to provide input on Santa Monica’s BPS policy. The City is also presenting at various Commission and Board meetings, which are open to the public. More information on how to participate in future BPS meetings can be found below under Upcoming Events.

Timeline 

Past Events

Upcoming Events

CHEBO Public Comment Survey 

Please take our CHEBO Survey to provide any feedback on the proposed policy. 

Resources

Contact Us

For any other questions related to CHEBO, please reach out to environment@santamonica.gov.

Existing Building Reach Codes

To complement Santa Monica's BPS policy, OSE also developing an Existing Building Reach Codes policy. Existing Building Reach Codes are local building codes that go beyond or "reach" past state standards. They aim to achieve higher energy efficiency or sustainability goals in existing buildings by requiring energy and electrification upgrades when major renovation work is completed, such as replacing gas water or space heaters with efficient all-electric options. Existing Building Reach Codes typically apply to major renovations or additions to existing buildings and would be triggered by pulling a project permit that impacts a certain square footage per dwelling unit. 

While BPS impacts large commercial and multifamily existing buildings, Existing Building Reach Codes would only apply to small (less thank 20,000 square feet) residential buildings. OSE staff are early in the policy development phase and are planning to undergo a more formal policy development process in the future. Santa Monica is participating in the CPA Reach Code Program to assess Existing Building Reach Codes policy options. 

Resources

** Staff are tracking pending state legislation may impact the City’s ability to adopt policies that affect residential buildings. If needed, the policy recommendation may be limited to commercial buildings. **